The State of Nebraska

Early inhabitants of present-day Nebraska

http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0300/frameset.html

• Stone Age (Paleo-Indian)• Tribes included:

– Missouri– Omaha– Oto– Ponca– Pawnee

• Pawnee - fought with other tribes, but friendly to white settlers

• Agricultural - with occasional seasonal hunting

• Western Nebraska tribes arrived later:– Arapaho– Cheyenne– Comanche– Brule Sioux– Oglala Sioux

• Hunters• Nomadic - followed

seasonal buffalo migration

• Lived in tipis

Early Nebraska Indians

Europeans Arrive

• Spanish - Coronado (1541 - claimed the territory - no settlements)

• French - de la Salle (1682 - claimed all rivers draining to the Mississippi)– Called it Louisiana

(Named after French King Louis XIV [14th]

• French 1714 - reached mouth of the Platte

European presence and settlement

• French - 1720 Villasur Massacre– Spanish soldiers came to remove the

French– Pawnees attacked and killed most of

the Spanish soldiers• 1739 - French named it the Platte River• 1763 - French gave up all claims west of

the Mississippi River• 1800 - Napoleon Bonaparte forced

Spanish to giver Louisiana back to France

United States Acquisition of Louisiana Territory

• 1803 - Napoleon sold Louisiana to the USA for $15 million

• 1804-1806 - Lewis and Clark expedition

• http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0400/frameset.html

Nebraska’s first European settlements

• 1819 - Fort Atkinson established (near modern day Fort Calhoun) - abandoned in 1827

• First permanent white settlement - Bellevue in 1823 - Peter Sarpy

• 1820 - Stephen Long expedition - labeled Nebraska a “Great Desert” - not fit for farming

Early Christian Missionaries in Nebraska

• Rev. Moses and Eliza Merrill - Baptist missionaries to Indians around Bellevue (1833)

• Rev. Samuel Allis and Rev. John Dunbar - Presbyterian missionaries to the Pawnee - 1834-1846

• Father DeSmet - Catholic Priest - 1835

Migration to and through Nebraska

• Oregon Trail• Mormon Trail• Denver trail (steam

wagon road)• Pony Express (1860-61)• Fort Kearny• Steamboat trading along

the Missouri River• 1854 - Nebraska made

an official US territory - open to settlement

Settlement of Nebraska: The Railroads• Railroad Acts - RRs sold

land to settlers– Advertised and recruited in

Europe– Union Pacific– Burlington & Missouri

• Transcontinental RR through Nebraska

Treaties with Indian nations

• Treaties limited the power and range of Native Americans.• Settlers hunger for land and US government law encouraged

white settlement

Nebraska as a territory: 1854-1867

• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) made Nebraska a formal territory

• Territorial capital in Omaha– Legislature– Governor– Courts

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

Kansas and Nebraska, 1854

From Territory to State• Capital located in:

– 1. Omaha (territory)– 2. Lincoln (state)– Fight between North of

the Platte and South of the Platte River

• “When Nebraska became a state, a bitter dispute arose over the location of the new capital. Would it remain north of the Platte River in Omaha? Or would it be moved south of the river to a new town? A majority of legislators finally decided that the capital would be moved to newly founded Lincoln. Very few people lived in the area, and many people complained about the new location. A capitol building needed to be build before the first regular session of the state legislature. If the fist state capital had not been completed by January 1, 1869, the plan to make Lincoln the new capital might have failed.”

The Sower

Lincoln in the 1870s

Nebraska Statehood

• Became a state on March 1, 1867 (37th state)

• Capital in Lancaster (present day Lincoln)

• David Butler first governor

• University of Nebraska established in 1869

• Arbor Day - 1872 Started by J. Sterling Morton